Neverdie Raises $2.1 Million For VR And E-Sports Cryptocurrency

Neverdie is a gaming company that has been involved in the exploration of virtual reality space for several years now. Its newest funding method comes courtesy of a venture into blockchain and cryptocurrency. The ICO has already managed to earn $2.1 million, with one investor donating $50,000 alone. The ICO will close on August 1st.

CEO Jon Jacobs

Jon Jacobs, chief executive officer of Neverdie, is known for doing some truly innovative things which include buying a virtual asteroid for $100,000 in the online game Entropia Universe and running for “President of Virtual Reality.”

Neverdie Funding Usage

Jacobs plans to use the funding to create the software development kit (SDK), applications programming interface (API), and wallet for cross-platform game avatars.

The plan is to utilize virtual tokens that allow you to move your avatar from world to world. The reasoning is that Neverdie believes players will feel freer and will engage in commerce more than they do currently.

Payment for Playing Games

Jacobs has also noted that he believes artificial intelligence growth is bound to destroy many jobs as the years go by. He believes that Neverdie can serve as a source of employment by using the created tokens and providing them to people simply for playing games.

In an interview with Forbes, Jacobs stated, “I felt like I could create jobs at the same time because there’s a way to twist the business model of games to include actually paying people… You could just take a section of your revenues and say, “If you want jobs, here you go.” It helps support the economy. Because the jobs being lost to AI and the like, it fits with the challenges of the world. I wanted to make what we’re doing more relevant to what’s happening in the world.”

Changing the Game Industry

Jacobs chose Ethereum for the solution and believes it will take off by offering a new type of game platform that will appeal to those who are tired of the current models.

“We were able to gamify these tokens instantly by creating skill points, skill tokens, hit point tokens. There are so many ways. It’s amazing because you suddenly don’t have to build your own database. It’s peer to peer, the ledger, on the blockchain. It’s a remarkable new platform,” Jacobs said.

In addition to having access to the tokens which allow avatars to move across games, those who are token holders will get to vote on how things are released and for whom. The system will be democratic and ensure the changes are what current users want.

While this is an exciting and innovative way to change the way video games and communities work, it does remain to be seen whether it will work the way Jacobs hopes. Ethereum has suffered a mini-crash in the past, and it is possible another is on the way. However, if things go the way the team at Neverdie wish, it might be the start of something new and exciting.